No less than establishment of Islamic Order: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is the Muslim equivalent of the RSS, committed to establishing an Islamic order in India. Originally started as the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941, it was rechristened with its present name after Partition and its constitution enforced on April 13, 1956, changed its strategy from a holy war to a peaceful struggle for its objectives.
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It was banned during the Emergency and its leaders were arrested. Since the lifting of the Emergency, the organisation has shifted its emphasis to socio-economic activities, a trend discernible in the RSS also. Correspondent Farzand Ahmed spoke to some of the leaders and members gathered recently in Patna for a state convention to find out about the objectives and activities of the organisation. His report:
For an organisation with a few thousand followers to dream of establishing its own religious system in a vast and diverse country like India is like chasing a mirage in a desert. But when the followers of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) gathered in Patna last fortnight, the message was clear: It was no less than the establishment of an Islamic Order.
The organisation is a part of the Pan-Islamic movement and draws its inspiration from the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, the Fidayan-e-Islam of Iran and the Darul-Islam of Indonesia. All these are orthodox and fundamentalist and the recent upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism has given the JIH some pep.
Said Syed Zia-ul-Hoda, the president of the Bihar JIH: "The present Islamic renaissance the world over is the outcome of the failure of man-made 'isms.' People are bound to come to the divine line - as prescribed by Islam."
Islamic State: With a subtle play on words, JIH's All India Secretary, Syed Hamid Ali, 60, clarified: "We don't want to establish a Muslim state, but an Islamic state." Curiously, the Jamaat-e-Islami had opposed the Partition of India and the formation of Pakistan in 1947 by this logic.
Its founder, the late Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, a fanatic fundamentalist and an author and editor who traced his family tree to great sufis and saints 1,300 years ago, maintained that Islam could not be confined to a geographical area as it was "destined to rule the world."
Said Abuzar Kamaluddin, a young college teacher who heads the Bihar unit of JIH student wing, the Halqua-e-Talaba: "Islamic order is the cherished goal of every Muslim. This is an article of faith which was forgotten by the Muslims and we are just reminding them."
The organisation believes that the Islamic revolution could only be achieved through the general support of the masses, both Muslim and non-Muslim, or if everyone embraced Islam through dawat (invitation) and tarbiyat (training), explained a leader.
Objective: The first major setback to the JIH came with the arrest of its important leaders in 1954 under the Preventive Detention Act. It changed its objective from Hukumat-Ilahi (the rule of God) to Iquaamat-e-Deen (establishment and realisation of religion). It committed itself to following peaceful-methods, rather than a jehad (holy war) and said it would avoid all activities which might lead to communal disharmony.
The organisation was banned and its leaders detained during the Emergency because of its communal and inflammatory politics. The organisation which had kept out of parliamentary politics backed the opposition parties in the 1977 parliamentary elections in order to, as its Amir (chief) Maulana Muhammed Yusuf, 75, put it, "kill the dragon of the Emergency."
Since then, the JIH has changed its orientation and is concentrating on a cocktail of social work and preaching after the fashion of Bible-thumping Christian missionaries.
New Programme: Says Yusuf: "Instead of frittering away our energies in parliamentary politics, we devote them exclusively to constructive work." The JIH's new programme launched in 1978 said the organisation would work among Muslims to help them build up their life and character according to Islamic teachings. It would also try to remove misunderstandings towards Islam and the Islamic movement.
Under its social service programme it is establishing cooperatives for self-employment through cottage industries and funds for disbursing interest-free loans. JIH sources claim that 96 cooperatives have been set up. It is also establishing hospitals and dispensaries.
JIH also claims that its volunteers have carried out relief work during cyclones, communal riots and floods. Said one of them: "We ask the victims to rely solely on Allah and seek his help and guidance." JIH sources claim that 400 of its volunteers carried out relief among the victim's of the 1978 Andhra cyclone and among the 1979 Jamshedpur riot victims.
Indifference: Though its critics accuse the organisation of trying to keep the Muslims out of the nation's mainstream, it has made little headway during the 33 years of its operation in Independent India. The attitude of India's 61.4 million Muslims towards its hard line has largely been similar to that of the Pakistanis - cold indifference.
Its full-time members (called rukna) are only about 3,000, and claims 50,000 mutafaquin (supporters). It has three main wings - for women, non-Muslims and social service - and several youth and student organisations.
The JIH is considered to have its bases in Uttar Pardesh, Kerala, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It has several publications in 15 languages and the Radiance weekly in English.
As it is largely spurned by the Muslims, it is doomed to be a small, isolationist fringe group, but its potential for harming the social fabric is by no means limited. With its messianic zeal of a divine-ordained mission to impose religious tenets, it is an organisation whose activities would have to be continuously monitored so that they do not pose a threat to a secular India.